Dog Days of Winter

Gracie is an awesome dog....One of the all-time greats. She stays close off-leash, doesn't make any messes in the house & most all is uber-patient with the wee-ones. Why on earth would I want to mess with perfection?

It goes like this....I have been so busy obsessing about this move and playing both Mommy & Daddy while Tim sets up shop in NC that poor Gracie has been getting the short end of the proverbial stick. She is pretty bummed about it, too. She seems down in the dumps & winter isn't helping either. We have limited (by that I mean zero) walks & stick-throwing sessions when the mercury is below freezing. I thought a puppy friend might help cheer her up and give her a backyard playmate that isn't me.

Then reality set in: 2x the dirt, 2x the hair, 2x the poop!!!! I saw a dog that was just as cute as a button but, alas, not house-broken. That was the deal breaker for me. I am working overtime trying to keep my house as close to perfection as is humanly possible so we can sell it as quick as possible and a puppy just doesn't figure into that equation:

Poopy-stained carpets + tumbleweed-sized furballs = No Sale !!!

So bye-bye little yellow lab....I hardly knew ye. Gracie is more than enough pup for this family.

The Big 3 !!!

Wow !!!! My little Ty is officially a big kid now....3 years old.

We had a great birthday in spite of the minor change to our birthday schedule to accomodate a prospective buyer that wanted to see our house. So instead of the normal birthday festivities we spent our day obsessively scrubbing toilets, vacuuming, and making beds you could bounce a quarter on. We are having big fun now!!!

But being the troopers that we Grandinetti's are, we pulled it all together and the house looked extra-great thanks to Tim's diligence in the backyard pooper-scooping arena. We only had one minor slip up in the closing moments of the "They will be here at 3:00" countdown. As I was compulsively scrubbing my white ceramic kitchen sink with Soft Scrub, I pulled on the faucet spout to activate the sprayer and the entire thing came right off in my hand. Followed by a jet engine-powered stream of water right to my face. Ooops.

What to do? What to do? Well, we opted for Door #2 and choose to stick it back on there very carerfully and pray that the buyers didn't touch, or for that matter breathe, on the faucet lest it fall off right before their eyes. Then we crossed our fingers and fled the scene.

We closed our day with a rousing chorus of Happy Birthday and a gigantic slice of DQ ice cream cake. Just what the doctor ordered. HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE GUY!!!